Union eyes on Texas at AFL-CIO event

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., says the labor federation's focus “is on raising wages” and to show Texas workers its commitment to them.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., says...

HOUSTON — The AFL-CIO executive committee has come to Texas, setting its sights on what has been inhospitable terrain and betting workers in the state can be drawn to organized labor's efforts to raise wages.

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Buoyed by the growth of the energy industry along the Gulf Coast and fortified with organizing wins at poultry plants and manufacturing parts makers, the heads of some of the nation's largest labor unions are meeting in Texas for the first time Tuesday and Wednesday in Houston.

Members of the executive committee hope the giant labor federation can continue to notch more victories across the South, either through traditional organizing or public campaigns to boost the minimum wage.

They are meeting in a city where, less than a decade ago, labor celebrated its first large-scale victory in a quarter-century when a union once affiliated with the AFL-CIO organized the janitors who clean Houston's largest office buildings.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., said the union wants to send the message that the labor federation is expanding its horizons to new places and to new people.

“Our focus is on raising wages,” Trumka said, claiming during a news conference Monday that “everyone from the pope to the president” is embracing the global efforts.

While unions have long represented thousands of employees who work in the refineries and chemical plants, along with the electricians, pipefitters, welders and other craft workers in Texas, union organizing has been sporadic. A win here was followed by a loss there.

Union leaders put the blame on such factors as Texas' status as a right-to-work state in which workers cannot be forced to join a union; the strong anti-union sentiment among many corporate and government leaders; and even a go-it-alone Texan culture.

The number of Texas workers belonging to a union fell to 518,000 last year, down from 599,000 in 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported earlier this month.

Union members accounted for 4.8 percent of all Texas workers in 2013, down from 5.7 percent the year before.

In addition, 129,000 workers in Texas were represented by a union while not being labor union members themselves.

Combining those workers with union members, union-represented employees accounted for 6 percent of the wage and salary workforce in Texas. That compares with the national rate of 12.4 percent, according to the federal agency.

“Unions are having trouble convincing employees that joining a union is in their best interests,” said A. Kevin Troutman, an employment lawyer with Fisher & Phillips in Houston who represents management in labor disputes.

“If there isn't some problem, some great dissatisfaction, most employees don't see a great need for someone to come in and speak on their behalf,” he said. Long strikes and stories of union corruption have made organizing even more difficult, he added.

Nationally, organizing efforts suffered a setback Friday night when workers at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee voted down a proposal to be represented by the United Auto Workers.

“We came within an eyelash of winning,” Trumka said Monday. He blamed the meddling of right-wing politicians who threatened the livelihoods of the workers if they voted for union representation.